This invention relates to an apparatus and method of placing reflectors on the surface of a roadway at selected locations.
This country is criss-crossed by hundreds of thousands of miles of highways. Most of these roads have some markings on the surface such as painted lines to denote the center of the highway on two lane roads and to denote the lanes on four or more lane divided highways. Sometimes the lines are painted to show where the edge of the road is. These paintings are, of course, quite helpful. However, the paint does tend to wear away and sometimes it is difficult to see it on a rainy, dark night. One method of marking roads, which for some areas replaces the painted lines, is the securing of reflectors to the roadway at selected locations. These reflectors are extremely helpful to motorists on dark, rainy nights inasmuch as they show the driver where the roadway actually is.
There have been numerous ways of securing these reflectors to the surface of the roadway. One common way is to apply an epoxy at selected spaced locations along the roadway and then place the reflectors in the epoxy bottle and let the epoxy cure. This system is rather costly and takes considerable time for the epoxy to dry. It has been estimated that at this time the cost of installation using epoxy for each reflector is one dollar and sixty-five cents, not counting cost of the reflector.
The prior devices for depositing a settable material for reflectors is typically of the gear type pumping mechanism which becomes clogged quite frequently. These prior devices normally require two people to operate.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a novel, thermal adhesive applicator for use in securing reflectors or other driving assistance objects to the road.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide a novel thermal adhesive applicator which can be operated by one person.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a trailer supported thermal adhesive applicator in which the operator can maneuver the adhesive dispensing valve to deposit the adhesive at the desired locations while the trailer is being pulled down the highway.